Condensed from the book “Muslims in the Philippines” by Dr. C
A Majul.

The
Coming of Islam to Sulu

The
written history of Sulu is based mainly on tarsilas.
Tarsilas are lineal or multilineal written accounts of
genealogy. Sometimes they are accomplished by an
introductory legendary or traditional account.

The
best-publicized Sulu tarsila is the one reported by
Najeeb Saleeby, which was made available to him by Haji Buto
Abdul Baqi, one time prime minister to Jamal ul-Kiram II, the
last sultan who wielded political power in Sulu. Saleeby
published his work on the histories of Maguindanao and Sulu
in 1905 and 1908 respectively. The collection of tarsilas
on the history of Sulu was collectively designated by
Saleeby as the “Genealogy of Sulu”.

The
first clue of Islam in Sulu is the information of the coming
of a Tuan Masha’ika. Although the Sulu Genealogy did not
explicitly states that Tuan Masha’ika was a Muslim, it
could be inferred that because his reported children, Tuan
Hakim and Aisha, and of his grandchildren are Muslims, Tuan
Masha’ika must have been a Muslim. Furthermore, the title
“Tuan” in Sulu has been generally associated with
Muslims. Although Tuan Masha’ika first appeared to have
stayed in the area of Maimbung, his descendants were later
on to be found near Mt. Patikul and Mt. Sinumaan in the Lati
district on the other side of Jolo Island. All of these,
nevertheless, do not signify the Islamization of Sulu. They
only suggest the existence of a Muslim family in Sulu, or at
most, a Muslim settlement.

Sometime
after the arrival of Tuan Masha’ika, there came Karimul
Makhdum who settled at Buansa. The term “makhdum”
which in Arab lands usually meant “master” in the sense
of “one who is served,” was later used in India and
Malaysia in the sense of teacher or learned man, for so was
he served by those who respected and learned from him.
Although the tarsila did not say that Karimul Makdum
introduced Islam for the first time, it did say that people
from different parts flocked to him and that he built a
mosque. Based on some narration, it is probable that there
were already some Muslims in Buansa when he arrived. What
the makhdum did was therefore to consolidate or
reinforce Islam among them and, according to tradition, make
some conversions. That he was called later “Tuan Sharif
Aulia” suggests that he was a missionary and preacher,
since the term “aulia” sometimes carried this
connotation in Malaysia. From Buansa, Karimul Makhdum was
believed to have traveled to the South of Sulu, passed by
Tapul where some people claimed to be his descendants,
proceeded to Simunul Island and built a mosque at Tubig
Indangan, proceeded to Sibutu, died there and his tomb can
still be found at Tandu Banak. The mosque at Tubig Indangan
is still existing at present and has been reconstructed at
various times.

Another
makhdum was also reported who lies buried in Bud Agad
in Jolo island and whose proper name was Amin-ullah and
entitled Sayyid un-Nikab. It is to this latter makhdum
that stories about Chinese companions and trading activities
with them properly belong. He probably came by way of the
second route mentioned earlier. Near his grave is that of a
Chinese, called by the present caretakers as “Hoy-Hoy”,
clearly a local version of “Hue-Hue”, the Chinese term
for Muslim and used to refer to Chinese Muslims, who
constituted one of the five principal groups of peoples in
the Celestial Empire. Whereas trading is associated with
Amin-ullah in traditional accounts, the Sulu Genealogy says
nothing about such activities regarding the makhdum
Karim.

According
to the Sulu Genealogy, ten years after the arrival of
Karimul Makhdum, Rajah Baguinda arrived from Menangkabaw,
Sumatra, after stopping at Zamboanga and Basilan. It is
believed that on his arrival, negotiations took place
between him and the Muslim chiefs at Buansa. Rajah Baguinda
was accompanied by orangkayas or men of means, among
others. His arrival represents the establishment of a
dynasty, and the Sulu Historical Notes say that he married
in Buansa. Dr. Majul estimates, that because there were
already Muslim chiefs during the arrival of Rajah Baguinda
and that some of these chiefs were grandchildren of Tuan
Masha’ika, the coming of Rajah Baguinda took place roughly
about fifty years after Tuan Masha’ika’s arrival.

“Baguinda”
is a Menangkabaw honorific for prince. In Sulu, it was used
in the sense of ruler. The fact that Rajah Baguinda is known
by this title suggest that he had exercise political power
in Buansa. What is significant about his arrival and stay is
that, being a Muslim coming to stay among Muslims, he could
have served to stimulate the strengthening of Islamic
consciousness. It was after the Rajah consolidated his
position in Buansa that another important event happened in
Sulu. According to the Sulu Genealogy:

After
that time came Sayid Abu Bakr from Palembang to Bruney and
from there to Sulu. When he arrived near the latter place he
met some people and asked them: “Where is your town and
where is your place of worship?” They said, “At Bwansa.”
He then came to Bwansa and lived with Rajah Baginda. The
people respected him, and he established a religion for Sulu.
They accepted the new religion and declared their faith in
it. After that Sayid Abu Bakr married Paramisuli, the
daughter of Rajah Baginda, and he received the title of
Sultan Sharif.

What
is odd about this narration is the impression given that Abu
Bakr introduced Islam when he had been preceded by Karim
ul-Makhdum and Rajah Baguinda and more than half a dozen of
Sulu chiefs who were definitely Muslims at the time of the
arrival of Rajah Baguinda. What is probably meant here is
that he had introduced Islamic political institutions or at
least that he had further consolidated Islam at Buansa, not
that he originally introduced it. However, it is to Abu Bakr
that the conversion of the people of the interior of the
islands of Sulu is attributed.

The
Sulu Genealogy clearly states that Abu Bakr was made a
sultan. This implies that the people of Buansa or their
chiefs, at least, must have been Islamized to the extent
that they would be willing to accept such an Islamic
political institution. Therefore what Abu Bakr introduced
was not Islam as such but Islam as a form ofstate religion with its attendant political and
social institutions. Abu Bakr is said to have lived for
about thirty years in Buansa where he had left descendants.
One of his sons Kamal ud-Din, succeeded to the sultanate.
All the royal datus, and naturally all the sultans who have
come from their ranks, have claimed descent from Abu Bakr.

All
tarsilas which deal with the first Sultan agree that his
title was Sharif ul-Hashim; but not all state that his
proper name was Abu Bakr as entered in the Sulu Genealogy.
Some traditions maintain that the proper name was Zein
ul-Abidin; others mention no proper name. The existing tomb
of the first Sultan carries only his titles and was probably
made during his lifetime. This might explain why no date of
his death was recorded on the tombstone. Traditions are
mostly agreed that the first Sultan was an Arab. He is
supposed to have gone first to Basilan where he was met by
people of Buansa, who, out of admiration and respect for
him, extended to him the invitation to go to Buansa. Another
tarsila, quite credible one, says that the Sharif
ul-Hashim was originally from Arabia, passed through
Baghdad, went to Palembang, and then to Borneo. And that
when he arrived at Buansa, the Muslims in Sulu were
concentrated in this settlement and its immediate area while
most Sulus were still infidels. On the strength of tarsilas
and traditions, it can therefore, be concluded that the
concrete beginnings of Islam in Sulu were first realized at
the Buansa area.

Although
the Sulu Genealogy does not give any date, a vital
archeological datum is available to help in the
periodization of the stages of the Islamization process in
Sulu. On the slopes of Bud Dato, a few miles from Jolo,
there stood a tombstone, which had been relatively well
preserved up to only a few years ago when it was suddenly
broken, for some unknown reason, into more than a dozen
fragments. The tombstone had an inscription only on one side
and the Arabic calligraphy was beautiful and clear.
According to tradition, it was around the site of this tomb
that many Sulu sultans had been crowned – thus the name
Bud Dato, the hill of rulers. In times of emergency when
Jolo was endangered by invaders, sultans fled to this hill.
The translation of the inscription is as follows:

Said
the Prophet, peace be upon him:

“Whoever
dies far away [from his home] dies a martyr.”

Allah
has taken away the late blessed martyr

Tuhan
Maqbalu on the date: The sacred, holy month

Of
Rajab. May Allah increase its holiness.

The
year ten and seven hundred.

According
to the inscription Tuhan Maqbalu died sometime in November
or December of 1310 C.E. (Rajab 710 A.H.) and that he was a
Muslim. He bore the title Tuhan which implies that he
was a chief in Sulu. The title Tuhan was sometimes
used in the past in the sense “lord” by persons of high
authority in Malaysian lands.

Dr.
Majul profounded the following stages in the early part of
the Islamization of Sulu:

1.There existed
during the last quarter of the thirteenth century if not
earlier a Muslim settlement or community in Sulu. This
probably consisted of foreign traders, some of whom might
have married members of the ruling families or even played
some political role. Tuan Masha’ika or Tuhan Maqbalu
belong to this stage. Men like them brought the first
elements of Islam and raised Muslim families.

2.The existence of
such a settlement, the memory of their leading personages,
and a rise to social and political prominence of the
descendants of some such personages, as in the case of the
descendants of Tuan Masha’ika, demonstrate that the native
population was not only antagonistic to Islam but was
receptive to it. Such a receptivity explains conversion to
Islam with the arrival of the missionaries in Sulu, an event
contemporaneous with the work of other missionaries in Java.
This is the stage of the makhdumin. It can be
estimated to have taken place about the second half of
the fourteenth century.

3.The coming of
Muslim Malays from Sumatra at the beginning of the
fifteenth century with political implications. This is
the stage represented by the coming of Rajah Baguinda with a
veritable group of courtiers, some of whom were believed to
have been learned, possibly, in religious matters. The
existence of a Muslim ruler guarantees the preservation of
the work of the missionaries and the prestige of the older
Muslims.

4.The establishment
of Muslim political institutions, more specifically the
sultanate under the Sharif-ul-Hashim by the middle if the
fifteenth century. At this time Islam spread from the
coastal areas to the mountain areas in the interior of the
island of Sulu. The acceptance of the sultanate institution
by the coastal chiefs suggest that Islamic consciousness
must have been quite widespread among them. Organized
religious instruction became common.

5.By the beginning
of the sixteenth century, increased contacts, both
political and commercial, with other Islamized parts of
Malaysia, transformed Sulu into an integral part of an
expanding dar ul-Islam in Malaysia.

6.Around the end
of the sixteenth century and in the first decades of the
seventeenth century, political alliances with
neighboring Muslim principalities against the increasing
dangers of Western colonization and Christianization as well
as the consistent arrivals of itinerant teachers or
missionaries like Alawi Balpaki further guarantee the
preservation of Islam in Sulu.

As
can be seen, Dr. Majul adds, the early stages of the
Islamization of Sulu followed a pattern similar to those
elsewhere in Malaysia: the initial existense of a foreign
Muslim settlement, members of this colony exercising some
political power or the rulers of the principality becoming
Muslims, the coming of missionaries strengthening Islam
among the older Muslims and effecting some conversions, the
introduction of additional Muslim institutions, and
increasing contacts with other Muslim kingdoms and
principalities, thereby heightening Islamic consciousness at
home. As it were, Sulu presents in miniature what had
generally happened in Malaysia as a whole regarding
Islamization.